On Friday 14 June, Spain, supported by Cyprus, Greece, Croatia, Italy, Lithuania, Malta, Portugal and Romania, called for the monitoring mechanisms of the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) in the maritime sector to be strengthened. The European transport ministers discussed the issue in Luxembourg on Tuesday 18 June.
Óscar Puente Santiago, the Spanish minister, expressed his concern about “the risks of carbon leakage, loss of competitiveness in European ports and loss of control over European commercial sovereignty”. In his view, the use of shipping lanes through third countries to avoid the cost of the ETS cancelling out the effects of the system. As highlighted in the ‘Letta’ report (see EUROPE 13393/3), he called for an evaluation of the ETS in the maritime sector. “Once the European supply chain has passed into other hands, it will be difficult to reclaim”, the minister argued.
Magda Kopczyńska, Director General for Mobility and Transport at the European Commission, felt that it was too early to assess any negative effects and assured us that the Commission was monitoring the situation very closely. “A new Maritime Task Force has been created under the ETS Compliance Forum, which is due to meet on Thursday 4 July”, she announced.
For his part, Mark Harbers, the Dutch minister, felt that the ETS should be extended to ships weighing more than 400 tonnes gross.
Read Spain’s statement: https://aeur.eu/f/cqq (Original version in French by Anne Damiani)